Neurocognitive foundations of successful foreign language learning: Researcher, student and knowledge exchange between the UK and Japan

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The difficulty of developing adequate foreign language (FL) proficiency has led education researchers to investigate how FLs can be learned in the most effective and efficient way. Drawing on perspectives from neuroscience, we propose a novel, interdisciplinary hypothesis that individual differences in brain and cognitive functions related to hearing and memory can explain why certain FL learners attain different degrees of success under different instructional programs (form- vs. meaning-oriented) in linguistically different contexts (British learners of Japanese vs. Japanese learners of English). The findings of the research will shed light on whether it is possible to identify neurocognitive profiles specific to different groups of FL learners, highlight their advantages and shortcomings, and suggest optimal, profile-matched instructional methods.With the aid of the Connections Gant, we will initiate a novel collaboration between the UK and Japan across two somewhat independently developed fields (i.e., education, neuroscience) at both faculty and student levels. It also represents the very first partnership between world-renowned institutes in education (UCL - ranked 2nd in the UK) and neuroscience (Birkbeck and Tohoku - ranked 8th and 3rd in the UK and Japan, respectively) (Times Higher Education, 2018). The two host institutes, Birkbeck and Tohoku, have shown their willingness to support the current initiative by providing access to research facilities (office, meeting rooms). To facilitate the execution of the proposed activities, the members also plan to seek internal funding (Birkbeck Incentive Funds; Joint Research Program with Tohoku University).The team includes both scholars at different stages in their careers who completed their formal academic training at different time points (Saito, 2011; Tierney, 2010; Révész, 2006; Jeong, 2007; Sugiura, 2000; Suzuki, 2015). Thus, the project not only promotes intercultural/interdisciplinary interaction, but also serves as an opportunity for PhD students and scholars early in their careers to increase the breadth and depth of their experience by working with senior scholars.After the initial video-conferencing sessions to meet and exchange ideas, we will host 5-day research workshops at Birkbeck (March 2019) and Tohoku University (August 2019). In these meetings, the team will work together on an interdisciplinary overview on the following three topics: (a) auditory neural encoding and phonological learning (Saito, Tierney, Révész, Jeong); (b) declarative memory and lexical learning (Saito, Tierney, Sugiura, Suzuki); and (c) procedural memory and grammar learning (Révész, Jeong, Sugiura, Suzuki). Research findings on these topics will also be summarised according to each target language (Japanese vs. English). The members' PhD students will participate in literature search and manuscript writing as a co-author. To disseminate the research, we will host unique symposia in London (September 2019) and Tokyo (October 2019). In each event, members and their PhD student collaborators will present their conceptual papers alongside two expert keynote speakers from education and neuroscience, who will provide valuable feedback on team's research. To invoke interests from various types of audience, local PhD students and FL teachers will be invited to present their insights on successful FL learning and engage in discussion with team members.All presentations will be published in an open-access, edited volume produced by an international publisher. A non-technical report on the cognitive mechanisms underlying successful FL learning will be shared via the team's new website and on social media in both Japanese and English. During the final period of the collaboration (April 2020), the team will work on grant applications (e.g., JSPS, ESRC) to fund a series of empirical studies and test the hypotheses that the team will have developed.